| UK Vogue Natural Nylon interview
Room 412 of the London office-block-turned-slick-hotel, Sanderson,
is littered with eye-catching objets: a silver boat-bed, a
pair of curvy dumbbells, an oversized plastic egg. But these
conversation pieces fade into the background next to the look-at-me
personal-ities swamping the room. Jude Law - elfin, golden,
poised, pretty - is straddling the egg as though he were hatching
it as his pregnant wife Sadie Frost talks dinner destinations
with a girlfriend. Big bloke Sean Pertwee strides about, banging
into furniture as he imitates a "zombie with a broken arm".
A rowdy, black-haired Ewan McGregor tries to comfort his small
daughter, Clara, (she's lost her beads) and suck a beer at
the same time. Jonny Lee Miller skulks shyly by the window.
Phones ring constantly; every-one shouts. The noise level
hovers around the Spice-Girl-in-a-wind-tunnel mark.
There are others here, too: Ewan's wife Eve Mavrakis, Sean's
wife Jacqui Hamilton-Smith, an actress friend of Sadie's,
ready-for-my-close-up stylists, assistants, PAs, PRs ... the
youth here is so gilded it glitters. Room 412 is an OK' photographer's
Britpack dream- and in the thick of it are two men for whom
the camera never clicks. One is an edgy, noisy, sharp-featured
34-year-old, lean as a whippet in his Paul Smith suit. The
other is in his for-ties - polite, grey-haired and rumpled,
with the quietly comforting presence of a familiar teddy bear.
Meet Damon Bryant and Bradley Adams. You might not think it,
but if it weren't for them, we wouldn't be here.
"Oi, Damon," honks Jude, still spread-eagled. "Sort out your
trouser hems! That's better. Molto Italiano." Jude himself
is sport-ing a vest. He swivels to bellow at Sean, Damon and
Bradley about Italy: "We could go where we went for Ripley".
Sean has been proposing that they all go down for the summer
"on Davinia [Murphy]'s boat. Up for it?" he asks Damon.
It's clear to the most casual of observers that Damon Bryant
and Bradley Adams are part of the crew, but equally clear
that they are not actors. Too watchful, too uneasy being watched.
If Jude, Sean, Sadie, Ewan and Jonny are the pop group, then
Damon and Bradley must be the managers. In fact, they are
a pair of film producers. Together with the five actors, they
make up the British production company Natural Nylon, described
by one of its heavyweight backers as representing "what film-making
is all about: a talent-driven, contemporary, hip environment
that generates the best projects". Someone gives the nod -
photo call! - and the talent-driven, contemporary, hip environment
moves en masse to the lift, grinding cigarette butts into
coffee cups, crumbs into carpet, slamming the door. An abandoned
phone rings on. Room 412 is left bereft and, frankly, wrecked.
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"Natural Nylon was officially
formed in 1997, but it started two or three years before
that," says Damon Bryant. He is sitting with Bradley
Adams in a small boardroom at the Natural Nylon offices
in Soho. Damon had been working as a cameraman, but
quit in 1991 when he and his wife opened 41 Beak Street:
"a mini-Groucho with a dance floor". There Damon rekindled
his friendship with Adams, a TV producer, and was introduced
by his wife to her old school friend, Sadie Frost. Sadie
was dating Jude Law, who she'd met in 1992 on the set
of Britflick Shopping. Sean Pertwee also appeared in
the film; Ewan McGregor had been up for Jude's part.
Jude had known Jonny Lee Miller since they were teenagers
together in the National Youth Theatre. All five actors
lived in the same area - Primrose Hill - and they all
began drinking in Damon's club. There, with Damon and
Bradley, they hatched ideas.
At the back of the Sanderson foyer, a curtain is not
quite fully drawn. Laughter bubbles through and a hotel
guest casually looks over, then suddenly stretches his
neck to check that, yes, it really is Jude Law having
his photo taken sprawled across a pool table. At Damon's
nod, the curtain is drawn tight: Jude and Ewan are famous
enough to draw crowds. But when Natural Nylon started,
they were no one in particular. |
Sadie Frost: "Back then, we were all a little bit dissatisfied.
We felt we were typecast. We wanted to encapsulate our energy,
put it into a project we liked and could all get involved in.
We were young and naive."
Sean Pertwee: "Charlie Chaplin had a company in the Twenties
- United Artists -with Douglas Fairbanks and people like that...
They were the first group to have an actor-based company.
We thought it was a good idea."
Ewan McGregor: "It seems very arrogant to say we were frustrated
with the way films were made, but I think it's probably true.
We wanted to do them our way, make films where the story matters,
not patronising the audience, but challenging them and telling
the story for the story's sake."
The initial notion was simply that the five actors appear
in a film together. A story was picked: The Hellfire Club,
a tale of like-minded eighteenth-century libertarians. Soon
after, the idea of creating an accompa-nying production company
was mooted. While Jude was in New York, acting opposite Kathleen
Turner on Broadway in the play Indiscretions, he and Damon
came up with the name Nylon (New York-London); the Natural
was added, says Damon, "because we wanted a contrast. And
so no one thought we were selling tights."
Natural Nylon took a while to get off the ground. Sadie remembers
a lot of fruitless lunches with finance companies; Damon recalls
talking into the small hours about infrastructure. Eventually,
they turned to Bradley, who already had his own produc-tion
company, Union Pictures. He agreed to come in with the fledgling
Nyloners and let them share his offices. Union Pictures is
now the TV sister to Natural Nylon's feature-making division,
bringing in regular income from documentaries, dramas and
series like Masterchef (Future projects include Johnny Vaughan's
sitcom.) So, Natural Nylon had premises and proposals as long
ago as 1995. Yet it took until 1999 for their first project
- a co-production of David Cronenberg's eXistenZ, with Jude
Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh - to hit the screens; and until
May of this year for the first, true born-in-Nylons movie,
Nora (the love story of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle, starring
Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch), to appear before the waiting
world.
Why has it taken so long for the company to produce anything?
Bradley bristles slightly at the question, but when he speaks
he is as patient and polite as ever. "It takes three to four
years to make a film and anyone who tells you otherwise ain't
doing it right." The ever-nervy Damon breaks in, "We've worked
very hard for the past few years on a specific number of projects,
and now they're coming in." "As Glen Hoddle would say, it's
all come to fruition," adds Bradley.
The fruit of the Nylon loins, lined up and ready to play
over the next few years, will be: Marlowe, the story of sixteenth-century
playwright Christopher Marlowe, directed by John Maybury;
Psychoville, directed by Sara Sugarman, starring Jude Law
and Sadie Frost; Disturbia, directed by Jake Scott, starring
Jonny Lee Miller and Sean Pertwee; and The Hellfire Club,
directed by Stephen Daldry, starring all five actors. Plus
there are other projects in development: Jonny Lee Miller
is raring to go on an adaptation of Unreasonable Behaviour,
the autobiography of war photographer Don McCullin; and Jude
is still keen to make a film about The Beatles' manager Brian
Epstein.
Some of the films were brought in by the actors: Nora was
"Ewan's passion project", says Damon; and some ideas came
from Damon and Bradley: they gave Psychoville to Jude to read
and Disturbia to Jonny and Sean. "Our tastes are very similar,"
observes Damon. "We know what type of films we want to do.
Character pieces rather than plot-driven stuff."
The photo session has swept on, out to the open-air bar.
But it's early evening now and there are too many punters
for the planned perching-by-the-water-feature shot. Every-one
is staring. The Nyloners grab your attention: they fizz with
energy, particularly Ewan, who strides about in a manner best
described as swashbuckling. And there is power in their numbers.
Sean Pertwee: "Having a company gives you more opportunities.
Jude, for example, always wanted to play someone with a hunchback
and boils, which he'll never get on the outside, not with
cheekbones you could open a letter with. Now we can play characters
and roles we never normally would, and we have the opportunity
to just be actors or to be involved from the very beginning
as producers."
Jude Law: "I reached a point, a couple of years ago, where
I got frustrated with being an actor for hire. I liked doing
my job, but I didn't like the fact that, once you were finished,
you stepped out of the creative loop. But since I've got my
stuff going at Natural Nylon, I've enjoyed just tipping up
and doing the job."
Jonny Lee Miller: "Sometimes you don't work for four or five
months, and just when you get to despairing and want to throw
yourself off the top of Primrose Hill - and then get up again
and go, 'Oh, I'm a bit dirty' - just when that happens, then
everything's all right. Natural Nylon is my lifeline during
that time. It makes me feel secure."
Security in filmmaking, as in many aspects of life, means
financial security. This is a rarity in Britain, where most
films are funded through a rag-bag of resources: grants from
the Lottery and the BFI; backing from distributors, from Europe,
or from City boys who'd like a ticket into a more glamorous
world. Damon and Bradley wanted to ensure that Natural Nylon
could operate without the constant headache of piecemeal funding.
To this end, they signed a backing deal with Canadian film
company, Alliance Atlantis Communications, and a smaller deal
with Advance, a German firm. "We're not in this to make our
fortunes," smiles Bradley. Still, Natural Nylon hopes to make
money for its backers - and also for the company itself to
put into future developments. So far, this has come off Natural
Nylon has been canny with its finances and lucky with its
timing.
It's the British premiere of Nora, the first ever proper
Natural Nylon film (eXistenZ was, essentially, David Cronenberg's
movie: he wrote, developed and directed it, while Bradley
and Damon came in on the British production side). There are
crowds outside Hampstead's Everyman cinema. It's even more
packed inside: the foyer is tiny and crammed with glammed-up
invitees. The champagne waiters squeeze between bodies, duck
under waving arms. Jude, Sadie, Ewan, Sean and Jonny all arrive
late. There's an entourage, too: Meg Mathews pops in, DJ Paul
Oakenfold is spotted later, several of Sadie's Primrose Hill
girlfriends drop by. Photographs are taken, heads are craned.
Eventually, everyone from the foyer is ushered into the cinema
proper. The film's director, Pat Murphy, and its principals,
Susan Lynch and Ewan McGregor, get up on stage before it starts.
Ewan buttons and unbuttons his suit jacket as he speaks of
"a film made with love". As the opening credits roll, the
Nyloners cheer each familiar name.
Afterwards, the general consensus is "not bad". Susan Lynch,
as Nora, is superb, but you're never quite convinced that
Ewan has a poet's soul (or an Irish accent) and, although
the film looks pretty enough, it rambles. It's like all stories
of other people's love lives -fascinating at the start, but
after an hour of the same old arguments you start thinking:
look, either split up or shut up. Still, the post-screening
party is great, with free booze and much dancing. Sean and
Bradley stay the distance. Jonny pops in for a while.
Over the next few days, when I ask a few London scenesters
and film insiders for their opinions of Natural Nylon, I am
taken aback by the strength of their responses. "Natural Nylon?"
growls one. "A cockney knees-up with no cock and no knees."
"They should be a boy band, rather than actors," sniffs another.
"Line them up with Jacqui Hamilton-Smith and Natalie Appleton
(Jonny's ex) and they're S Club 7." A third huffs, "They're
all 'Look at us, aren't we trendy' and it's just so naff and
smug. And in their films, they're obviously better off without
each other." Some of the nastiest comments are saved for Sadie
Frost - "She gets loads of press, and for what? 'Cos she's
married to Jude" - although most of these critics admit it's
because "I want her life". Many I speak to seem to think the
widely derided gangster caper, Love, Honour and Obey, is a
Natural Nylon production. Only those who work within the film
industry are aware that Natural Nylon also involves Damon
and Bradley. There are also a few hilarious rumours, including
the story that the boys in Natural Nylon go round to each
other's houses to play Fight Club. (Although, to judge by
the vitriol, all they would have to do is drink in a pub outside
Primrose Hill if they really wanted a scrap.)
Aside from the gossip-fest, there are a few criticisms that
stick. One is the "stick to what you're good at" argument,
meaning you may know how to act, but that doesn't mean you
know how to make films. The other, coming from those Within
the industry, is that work-ing on an actor's "passion project"
can lead to a situation where the director has no real clout.
Another is the 'jobs for the boys like me" jibe: "They just
employ their mates - people they've met down the Met Bar.
And they're all the same as each other. Who wants to see a
film filled with the same shallow person repeated over and
over?"
And yet, as Jonny Lee Miller comments, "I don't know why
we're perceived as being the same, because actually we're
extremely different people. When we were younger and all going
up for the same parts, one of us would get one kind of part
and one of us would get another, and that was because we were
so different."
| He's right. Though they
may seem to be cut from the same photogenic cloth, the
actors are utterly unlike one another. Sadie is much
more beautiful than her photographs suggest - even though
she's feeling wretchedly sick from her pregnancy - with
a gentle, dreamy air that may stem from her hippie upbring-ing.
Very much a girl's girl, she constantly and genuinely
promotes other actresses in her conversation, and tells
me she's thinking of moving into producing. Sadie is
a shock: her personality is so far removed from her
media image. Jude, however, is just like his. He is
so charming it quite takes you aback. He sits like a
navvy, talks like a priest. He listens hard, answers
questions thoughtfully and articulately. He's willing
to admit mis-takes, but does so without ever losing
his positive spin. Even when he's disagreeing with you,
he manages to do it in such a way that it feels like
you're both on the same side. Ewan is hilarious: the
Most Confident Man in the World, and the least self-conscious
actor I have ever met. He walks out of the photo session
when he wants to, returns as he pleases. He's happy
to disagree and does so with a big laugh. When you are
out of Ewan's sight you are, without a doubt, out of
his mind. The man's after enjoying his life.
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Sean and Jonny are less easy in their skin. Sean is defensive,
suspicious of journalists, wary of your motives. Every answer
he gives begins with "No". Though he says he doesn't care what
people think, I imagine that he cares very much. He has a natural
dominance that must feel slightly thwarted by Ewan and Jude's
success. Later, he confesses that he feels awkward "because
I've got nothing to promote" - meaning he's not working on anything
much outside Natural Nylon - and you remember that actors compete
for work, and that for all their bluster and comrade-ship, their
egos must be eggshell-thin.
And Jonny Lee Miller is a revelation. He's so timid that
he bolts after just half an hour. ("You're lucky he turned
up at all," says Sadie. "He hates photographs.") He's shy,
but likes talking and will willingly discuss his own weaknesses,
in contrast to the others, who present a united "take us or
leave us" front. "Sometimes you can have a great part and
be crap in it," he says, like a small boy. He wants to go
on a six-month trip to Mongolia with people he doesn't know.
You wonder how on earth he and good-time girl Natalie Appleton
got it together, let alone how he ended up marry-ing Angelina
Jolie. You'd think she'd eat him for breakfast and spit him
out for elevenses.
I ask the actors about the way Natural Nylon uses directors.
Jonny Lee Miller:"We're not trying to have complete fascistic
control over our films; we're very aware that you have to
respect the director. You get a director in and then you let
them get on with it. It must be quite hard for people to come
into a situation with the cast already set:directors like
to choose their own thing, you know. We're all very aware
of that."
Ewan McGregor: "What if I found a pro-ject and then got a
director in who decided he didn't want me in it? That wouldn't
happen. No. Ha ha. If I bring in a project as an actor then
it's mine and it's not his, y'know..."
Jude Law: "To be honest, if I had a project and then the
director said, 'Oh, I'm not sure you should be in it,' I don't
think I'd mind."
Later, I speak to Sara Sugarman, who'll be directing Psychoville,
Jude and Sadie's project. A clever, witty woman who was well-respected
as an actress before she turned to directing, she is enthusiastic
about working with Natural Nylon. "They're making good, expensive
product with bankable film stars," she says. "They are confident,
they have money and ambition, and they make sure that the
talent - meaning the director, the writer and the actors -
has as much say as the producers. So the talent is drawn towards
them." As an ex-actress herself, Sara is easy with the actors
being involved. "Sadie's always phoning, telling me about
funny things that have happened in the girls' toilets and
asking, 'Can I wear a tutu, please?"'
Yet for all the actors' daffy requests, Sara is no patsy
director; and for all the actors' photo-friendliness, Natural
Nylon is no vanity project. "We want to be doing this in 10
years' time," says Bradley, though in the end, as is the case
with all artistic endeavours, Natural Nylon will be judged
by its product. eXistenZ was interesting, Nora wasn't, really,
but then I'm reliably informed that the script for Marlowe
is far, far better, and, with John Maybury the film has an
exciting, gifted director. Though they have a members-only
vibe, the Natural Nyloners are more open than they are given
credit for. Perhaps too open. They've surrounded themselves
with talent of varying degrees and various combi-nations.
Still, if just one of those sparks the talent into greatness,
then all of the private bar chitter-chatter will have been
worth it.
"If people want to shoot us down for our enthusiasm, or misunderstand
it as arro-gance, or jobs for the boys, then let 'em," says
Jude evenly, confidently. "We've been working hard and you
know, it's like turning round and going, 'Fuck, all the policemen
are my age, all the pop stars are my age'. Our generation
is now the generation in charge. Suddenly, it's our time..."
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